I’ve never played Stellaris, but I like sci Fi and I like RTS and strategy, how do people like it?
Stellaris is a trip, don’t buy it expecting Mario. The fun is in adapting to random events and where you start. I’m biased but my fave thing to do is to enslave empires that eff me over early game by bio engineering their population to be sapient livestock. The game is awesome but it’s deep. Be prepared to lose.
I pirated it to test it and I really enjoyed it, I went to buy it and the moment I saw over 30 dlcs (around £250) I noped out and never went back.
I think the base game is quite cheap and there are a handfull of dlcs that are really meaningful, which you still don’t need. Also the base game has gotten updates for at least 5 years now so i think it’s fair. And it works good on Linux.
Edit: It’s from 2016, so no wonder there a lot’s of dlcs. The base game has gotten overhauls in the meantime.
Most of the DLCs are easy cash-grabs with not much value. The base-game is regularly being modified, sometimes improved, sometimes not. They still have performance issues in late game, Multiplayer sync issues and no ability to change keybindings. Some major quality of life features are lacking for me. I love the game, I’ve been playing since release, but I wish they’d put less effort into releasing overpriced DLCs and put more effort in improving the game. I also dislike their DLC subscription model.
The constant changes were what made me decide it was a bad game. One of the reasons I bought it was the different FTL types. Between that the consent planet management changes I couldn’t enjoy the game. add the stupid war score system and I’ve learned to stay away from Paradox.
Yea I get that. For me it was a way of keeping the game fresh, though many of the changes added more micromanagement, which made the game harder.
Haven’t played it in years, but really liked it. Probably have hundreds of hours in it. I really liked a Star Trek total conversion too.
Take the following with a boulder of salt as I haven’t even finished a single campaign yet, but:
I’ve found it a lot slower than even most of the 4X games I’ve played. It seems much more story- and exploration-focused than Master of Orion or anything like Starcraft; there are a great many cool things to find on the map. Diplomacy is your main path to victory, military conquest seems almost discouraged. To actually conquer worlds you invade, you have to assert a claim beforehand. Simply flooding the system with troops and ships and killing everything that isn’t your empire doesn’t work for some reason.
It was fine, but I don’t think I really understand it. If you’re after recommendations, though, do you like The Expanse? You might like Starsector, if yes and you haven’t played it.
Diplomacy is your main path to victory, military conquest seems almost discouraged. To actually conquer worlds you invade, you have to assert a claim beforehand. Simply flooding the system with troops and ships and killing everything that isn’t your empire doesn’t work for some reason.
Devouring swarms simply don’t have this problem.
Devouring swarm campaigns are for the stressed work week lmao
Stellaris is the best 4X game I have ever played. I haven’t even seen all the content they keep adding, without owning any dlc. And this is a Paradox strategy game; there’s a fuckton of DLC.
I have a lot of fun with it
Didn’t regret buying it. They normally have super sales for base game and there are tons of mods. Issue is campaign length is long.
Because it’s fucking epic and amazing fun! A true gem. Buy the DLCs when Steam Sales come up and it’s actually not all that expensive, given AAA games are hitting £80 at new these days, getting a game that’s been extensively fleshed out with DLC for around the same on sale is a bargain, and the game play runs incredibly deeply. It is one big management tapestry, optimisation of your planets, your sectors, your systems, your leadership, your scientists, your fleets etc etc etc - there are so many ways to play it. It’s fucking amazing and the music kicks ass.
That’s what I did thanks to your comment! Everything is on sale, bought the nice starter pack
Ooh I hope you enjoy it! It’s a steep learning curve but once you start getting the hang of things it becomes very addicting.
It looks like a strategy game but actually isn’t. The strategy part just isn’t developed enough. It’s a story and RPG style game with a strong focus on economy management. The game discourages strategy by telling you how strong an army is (as a number) and giving you no tactical option. Meaning higher numbers will always win.
The (new) DLCs are mostly very bad and short so the game as a whole is in a strange state where you can play a good game with missing features without DLC or you play a bad game with lots of features that is very expensive with all the DLC.
I kinda hope that the game dies soon because the frequent game breaking updates and optional (and disadvantages) DLC makes modding annoying even though there are extremely fun mods, even better than the DLC.
One of the many games in my steam library that I bought and still haven’t played. I need to force myself to play some games…
